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Awhile back I wrote a post called Less Obvious Ways to Find A Decision Maker. I’ve discovered a few additional tactics since then that thought I’d share in a multi part post:

Call For Someone Who No Longer Works There

Calling into an 1000+ person company and asking the operator who manages a particular initiative (i.e. digital marketing) often results into getting routed to a department voicemail that never gets checked. Why you ask? Because you’re signaling that you’re a salesperson whose unfamiliar with the company. This is why it’s imperative to always have a name to call; it legitimizes yourself and compels people to take you seriously.

One of the first mistakes I made when I initially started doing BD was how’d I’d ask if someone if they were the decision maker.

“So X, would you say that you’re the decision maker for this.”

“Yes” was the answer I received 95% of the time. I’d say the number of actual decision makers I was talking too was probably closer to 50%. The incongruence emanated from the fact that I was asking all wrong.

Very few strangers have the authenticity to admit that they don’t hold much power:

“No, I’m actually just a minion to my overload boss.”

Of course someone is going to indicate they’re a decision making power when you flat out ask them. It’s like asking a parent if their …Continue Reading

Last week I found myself doing a bunch of cold calling into 1,000+ person companies so I thought I’d share some quick tips specifically on what not do when cold calling.

What Not to Do When Cold Calling from Scott Britton

A few key takeaways from this presentation:

The goal of a cold call is to set a meeting, not to sell them on the spot.

When you cold call someone, you’re probably interrupting their day. They person you’re talking to is not primed to be receptive to your pitch in this state. You only want to pitch someone when they’re ready to hear it and attentive. This is why the goal of an initial cold call should be to set a meeting.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned over the past year is how powerful storytelling in sales can be.

I always try to incorporate stories when I’m describing a product for a few reasons:

Humanizing Myself

When I’m communicating with a new acquaintance (especially when I’m pitching), I try to humanize myself as much as possible. One way to do this by making yourself more relatable. Bullet points and statistics are not relatable. A story about that crazy family member that always has a few too many beers at every family party is. Typically, the more we can relate to someone, the more we like them…and people buy from people they like. This is why I always try to supplement information with relatable narratives from my own life.

Prior to SinglePlatform, one of my biggest business development mistakes was failing to include a measure within my hitlist that allowed me to prioritize opportunities.

For those foreign to the concept, a hitlist (or pipeline) comprises of all of the companies that you could potentially partner with, sell to etc. It’s essentially a list of targets.

Inevitably there are going to be some target deals that move the needle for your company more than others. Doing a deal with Google, will probably make your company more valuable than doing a deal with a startup that may not be around in a year. Thus, as you build out your hitlist it’s important to be able to quantify how much value opportunities might drive …Continue Reading

I’ve just posted a free business development class on Udemy called “BD 101: How to Get Meetings With Any Company.”

The focus of the class is how to go about getting meetings with people you don’t know. This class is ideal for entry level BD/Sales people who will need to maverick their way into getting in the door or people who think they might want to work in business development at a startup.

The class is broken down into 5 video lectures spanning just under an hour:

Introduction to the class and setting yourself up for success
Finding and identifying decision makers
Introductions and how to ask for them
Cold email tactics and scripts
A primer on effective cold calling (includes scripts)

I’ve been playing LinkedIn like a keyboard this week and thought I’d share one of my favorite LinkedIn hacks.

An essential task when building out a hitlist is identifying the first and last name of the decision maker. I’ll use this information to figure out their email address and have a name to call.

Let’s say I’m trying to connect with an app developer at the NFL. Unless you have a tricked out LinkedIn account, you’ll often run into this….

I need to get Marco’s last name in order to contact him and don’t feel like shelling out a couple hundred bones. A simple trick you can do here is google the target’s name and title as it appears in this profile.

One of the most powerful things you care do in the relationship building process is to let someone know how they’ve helped you learn, grow or succeed. We’re presented opportunities to provide those who’ve helped us with feedback on positive results constantly, yet few people actually follow through.

Human interaction is the biggest catalyst to progress in our lives:

An introduction may help you close a deal.

Product feedback may inspire an enhanced iteration.

Advice over coffer may dramatically change the shape of your career.

Each one of these interactions represents an instance where someone else has afforded you their time, energy, or reputation to enhance your well-being. Sharing the fruits you’ve reaped from their labor accomplishes …Continue Reading